The Relational Benefits and the Quality of Services in Tourism

In a very competitive environment, it is highly important to identify the indicators that exert a major influence on customer satisfaction and loyalty. Based on the current relationship marketing concept of relational benefits (Gwinner, Gremler, Bitner, 1998; Hennig-Thurau, Gwinner, Gremler, 2002) and destination quality (Blazquez-Resino, Molina, Esteban-Talaya, 2015), a conceptual model was built. The present paper aims to analyse empirically the model that reflects three different types of relational benefits perceived by tourists as well as the benefits obtained by the tourist destination in term of satisfaction and loyalty. This study tries to identify whether relational benefits have a more important effect on satisfaction and loyalty than quality. As a result, we observe the role of relational benefits as an antecedent of customer satisfaction and the effect of the latter on tourist loyalty.

Ministry of Economy and Competitivity (Spain)